India Ancient Past By RS Sharma

India’s Ancient Past

This book provides a comprehensive and accessible account of the history of
early India. Beginning with a discussion on frameworks of the writing of history
—approaches, sources, and significance—the book sheds light on the origins and
growth of civilizations, empires, and religions. It covers the geographical,
ecological, and linguistic backgrounds, and looks at specific cultures of the
Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Vedic periods, as well as at the Harappan
civilization. The author discusses the rise of Jainism and Buddhism, Magadha
and the beginning of territorial states, and the period of Mauryas, Central Asian
countries, Satvahanas, Guptas, and Harshavardhana. He highlights important
phenomena such as the varna system, urbanization, commerce and trade,
developments in science and philosophy, and cultural legacy. He also examines
the process of transition from Ancient to Medieval India and addresses topical
issues such as the origin of the Aryan culture.

This engaging and lucid text, by one of the best-known scholars of ancient India,
will be indispensable for students and teachers of ancient Indian history.

R.S. Sharma is Emeritus Professor, Department of History, University of Patna.
He is also the Founder Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, New
Delhi.

India’s Ancient Past

R.S. Sharma

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Preface

The present book is based on a good portion of my Ancient India, which was
first published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training in
1977, but the obscurantist elements got it withdrawn from circulation by the
same body in 1978. The book was restored in 1980, and several lacs were
printed for school students. However, when in 2001 the NCERT published it,
some passages were removed without the author’s consent. Finally in 2002 the
NCERT withdrew the book because of extreme conservatism. When the Oxford
University Press approached me for publication, I decided to get the revised
copy of the existing edition published by them. I substantially revised the book
and added four new chapters to it. In doing so I took account of new ideas and
materials available to me.

The book covers Indian history from the beginning to the 7th century AD.
Since it is mainly meant for undergraduates and general readers, I have used
non-English words without diacritics. I have also avoided chapterwise
references, but an up-to-date chapter-wise bibliography has been provided at the
end of the book for the materials I have used. I will feel happy if the book retains
its old popularity.



Patna R.S. Sharma
July 2005 (RAM SHARAN SHARMA)

Acknowledgements

In preparing India’s Ancient Past I have received helps from several quarters.
Sita Ram Roy has prepared the chronology and also suggested some
improvements in the text. The index has been mainly prepared by Anjani Kumar
who has also compiled the bibliography. In addition to these two persons,
Angaraj Choudhary, Arundhati Banerji, Chandraprakash Narayan Singh, K.K.
Mandal, Parvej Akhtar, Prachi Sharma, Rajeshwar Prasad, R.L. Shukla, Sarjun
Prasad, and Surendra Gopal, have helped me in different ways. I thank all of
them. Nitasha Devasar, Aparajita Basu, and Shashank Sinha of the OUP have
helped me in the publication of the book. They deserve my sincere thanks.

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Plates
List of Maps

1. The Significance of Ancient Indian History

Unity in Diversity; The Relevance of the Past to the Present; Chronology

2. Modern Historians of Ancient India

Colonialist Views and their Contribution; Nationalist Approach and its Contribution; Move Towards
Non-Political History; Communal Approach; Chronology

3. Nature of Sources and Historical Construction

Material Remains; Coins; Inscriptions; Literary Sources; Foreign Accounts; Village Study; Natural
Sciences; Historical Sense; Constructing History; Chronology

4. Geographical Setting

Emergence of India; The Role of the Monsoon; The Northern Boundaries; Rivers; Natural Frontiers
and Cultural Contacts; Minerals and Other Resources; Chronology

5. Ecology and Environment

Ecology; Environment and Human Advance; Surroundings and Settlements; The Rain and Human
Effort; Ancient Attitudes Towards the Environment; Chronology

6. The Linguistic Background

Principal Language Groups; Austro-Asiatic; Tibeto-Burman; Dravidian; Indo-Aryan; Ethnic Groups
and Language Families; Chronology

7. Human Evolution: The Old Stone Age

African Ancestors of Human Beings; The Early Man in India; Phases in the Palaeolithic Age; The
Mesolithic Age: Hunters and Herders; Art in the Old Stone Age; Earliest Human Organization;
Chronology

8. The Neolithic Age: First Food Producers and Animal Keepers

Earliest Rural Settlements in Baluchistan; Use of Bone Tools in the Sites of Burzahom and Chirand;

Neolithic Settlements in South India; Farming and Cereals; Progress in and Limitation of the
Neolithic Phase; Chronology

9. Chalcolithic Cultures

Chalcolithic Settlements; Importance of the Chalcolithic Phase; Limitations of Chalcolithic
Cultures; The Copper Hoards and the Ochre-Coloured Pottery Phase; Chronology

10. Harappan Culture: Bronze Age Urbanization in the Indus Valley

Introduction; Town Planning and Structures; Agriculture; Domestication of Animals; Technology
and Crafts; Trade and Commerce; Social Organization; Polity; Religious Practices; The Male Deity
in the Indus Valley; Tree and Animal Worship; The Harappan Script; Weights and Measures;
Harappan Pottery; Seals and Sealings; Images; Terracotta Figurines; Stone Work; End of the Indus
Culture; Maturity; Post-Urban Phase; Percolation of New Peoples; Problem of Origin; Was the
Harappan Culture Vedic?; Problem of Continuity; Chronology; Chronology of Harappan
Archaeology

11. Identity of Aryan Culture

Texts for Traits of Aryan Culture; The Horse, its Domestication and Diffusion; The War Chariot;
Spoked Wheels; Horse Remains in the Subcontinent; Pit-dwelling; Birch; Cremation; The Fire Cult;
Animal Sacrifice; Horse Sacrifice; The Cult of Soma; The Svastika; Language and Inscriptional
Evidence; Dispersal of the Indo-Aryans; Chronology

12. The Age of the Rig Veda

Arrival of the Indo-Aryans; Tribal Conflicts; Cattle Rearing and Agriculture; Tribal Chiefdom; Tribe
and Family; Social Differentiation; Rig Vedic Gods; Chronology

13. The Later Vedic Phase: Transition to State and Social Orders

Expansion in the Later Vedic Period (c.1000–500 BC); Use of Iron; Agriculture; Arts and Crafts;
Settlements; Political Organization; Social Organization; Gods, Rituals, and Philosophy;
Chronology

14. Jainism and Buddhism

The Causes of Origin; Vardhamana Mahavira and Jainism; Doctrines of Jainism; Spread of Jainism;
Contribution of Jainism; Gautama Buddha and Buddhism; Doctrines of Buddhism; Features of
Buddhism and the Causes of its Spread; Causes of the Decline of Buddhism; Significance and
Influence of Buddhism; Chronology

15. Territorial States and the Rise of Magadha

Conditions for the Rise of Large States; The Mahajanapadas; The Rise and Growth of the
Magadhan Empire; Causes of Magadha’s Success; Chronology

16. Iranian and Macedonian Invasions

Iranian Invasion; Results of the Contact; Alexander’s Invasion; Effects of Alexander’s Invasion;
Chronology

17. State Structure and the Varna System in the Age of the Buddha

Second Urbanization; Rural Economy; Administrative System; Army and Taxation; The Republican

Experiment; Social Orders and Legislation; Conclusion; Chronology

18. The Maurya Age

Chandragupta Maurya; Imperial Organization; Ashoka (273–32 BC); Ashokan Inscriptions; Impact
of the Kalinga War; Internal Policy and Buddhism; Ashoka’s Place in History; Chronology

19. The Significance of Maurya Rule

State Control; Economic Regulations; Art and Architecture; Spread of Material Culture and the
State System; Causes of the Fall of the Maurya Empire—Brahmanical Reaction, Financial Crisis,
Oppressive Rule, New Knowledge in the Outlying Areas, Neglect of the North-West Frontier and
the Great Wall of China; Chronology

20. Central Asian Contact and Mutual Impact

I Political Aspects—The Indo-Greeks, The Shakas, The Parthians, The Kushans, The Indo-
Sassanians; II Cultural Consequences—Structures and Pottery, Better Cavalry, Trade and
Agriculture, Polity, New Elements in Indian Society, The Origin of Mahayana Buddhism, Gandhara
and Mathura Schools of Art; Language, Literature, and Learning; Science and Technology;
Chronology

21. The Satavahana Phase

Political History; Aspects of Material Culture; Social Organization; Pattern of Administration;
Religion; Architecture; Language; Chronology

22. The Dawn of History in the Deep South

The Megalithic Background; State Formation and the Development of Civilization; Three Early
Kingdoms; The Purse and the Sword; Rise of Social Classes; Beginnings of Brahmanism; Tamil
Language and Sangam Literature; Social Evolution from Sangam Texts; Chronology

23. Crafts, Commerce, and Urban Growth (200 BC–AD 250)

Crafts and Craftsmen; Types of Merchants; Trade Routes and Centres; Goods in Foreign Trade;
Money Economy; Urban Growth; Chronology

24. Rise and Growth of the Gupta Empire

Background; Chandragupta I (AD 319–34); Samudragupta (AD 335–80); Chandragupta II (AD 380–
412); Fall of the Empire; Chronology

25. Life in the Gupta Age

System of Administration; Trends in Trade and the Agrarian Economy; Social Developments; The
State of Buddhism; The Origin and Growth of Bhagavatism; Art; Literature; Science and
Technology; Chronology

26. Spread of Civilization in Eastern India

Signs of Civilization; Orissa and Eastern and Southern MP; Bengal; Assam; The Formative Phase;
Chronology

27. Harsha and His Times

Harsha’s Kingdom; Administration; Buddhism and Nalanda; Chronology

28. Brahmanization, Rural Expansion, and Peasant Protest in the Peninsula

The New Phase; States of the Deccan and South India; The Kalabhra Revolt; Conflict between the
Pallavas and the Chalukyas; Temples; Demands on the Peasantry; Land Grants and Rural
Expansion; Social Structure and Brahmanization; Chronology

29. Developments in Philosophy

Goals of Life; Samkhya; Yoga; Nyaya; Vaisheshika; Mimamsa; Vedanta; Charvaka and the
Materialistic View of Life; Chronology

30. Cultural Interaction with Asian Countries

India’s Relations with the Outside World; Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, China, and Central
Asia; Christianity and West Asian Relations; Indian Culture in Southeast Asia; Cultural Give and
Take; Chronology

31. From Ancient to Medieval

Social Crisis and Agrarian Changes; Rise of Landlords; New Agrarian Economy; Decline of Trade
and Towns; Changes in the Varna System; Rise of Regional Identities; Trends in Literature; The
Divine Hierarchy; The Bhakti Cult; Tantrism; Summary; Chronology

32. Sequence of Social Changes

Introduction; Tribal and Pastoral Phase; Agriculture and the Origin of the Upper Orders; The Varna
System of Production and Government; Social Crisis and the Rise of the Landed Classes; Summary;
Chronology

33. Legacy in Science and Civilization

Religion; The Varna System; Philosophical Systems; Crafts and Technology; Polity; Science and
Mathematics; Medicine; Geography; Art and Literature; Strength and Weakness; Chronology

Chronology of Literary Sources

Bibliography

Index

Plates

Between Pages 210–11
1. Neolithic Bone Tools, Burzahom
2. Copper Hoards, Anthropomorph Figure, Bharat Kala Bhawan, Banaras
3. Mother Goddess, Terracotta, Mohenjo-daro
4. Bull Seal, Mohenjo-daro
5. North Gate, Dholavira
6. Apsara, Ajanta
7. Sanchi, 200 BC–AD 200
8. Vidisha, 200 BC–AD 200
9. Buddha, Mathura, 200 BC–AD 200

10. Punch-marked Coins, Age of Buddha
11. Scene from Mrichchakatika, Mathura, Kushan, Second Century AD
12. Stupa Site III, Nalanda, Gupta Period
13. Gupta Coins
14. Rathas, Mahabalipuram, Gupta Period
15. Nara-Narayana, Deogarh, Gupta Period

Maps

1. Neolithic Cultures
2. Chalcolithic Cultures
3. Spread of Indus Civilization
4. Pastoral Cemetries and Other Related Sites in Central Asia
5. Early Indo-Aryan Sites
6. Distribution of Painted Grey Ware
7. Distribution of Northern Black Polished Ware
8. Deccan and South India
9. India in about AD 150
10. The Gupta Empire at the Close of the Fourth Century

1

The Significance of
Ancient Indian History

The study of ancient Indian history is important for several reasons. It tells us
how, when, and where people developed the earliest cultures in India, how they
began undertaking agriculture and stock raising which made life secure and
settled. It shows how the ancient Indians discovered and utilized natural
resources, and how they created the means for their livelihood. We get an idea of
how the ancient inhabitants made arrangements for food, shelter, and transport,
and learn how they took to farming, spinning, weaving, metalworking, and the
like, how they cleared forests, founded villages, cities, and eventually large
kingdoms.

People are not considered civilized unless they know how to write. The
different forms of writing prevalent in India today are all derived from the
ancient scripts. This is also true of the languages that we speak today. The
languages we use have roots in ancient times, and have developed through the
ages.

Unity in Diversity

Ancient Indian history is interesting because many races and tribes intermingled
in early India. The pre-Aryans, the Indo-Aryans, the Greeks, the Scythians, the
Hunas, the Turks, and others made India their home. Each ethnic group
contributed its mite to the evolution of the Indian social system, art and
architecture, language and literature. All these peoples and their cultural traits
commingled so inextricably that currently they can be clearly identified in their

original form.

A remarkable feature of ancient Indian culture has been the commingling of
cultural elements from the north and south, and from the east and west. The
Aryan elements are equated with the Vedic and Puranic culture of the north and
the pre-Aryan with the Dravidian and Tamil culture of the south. However, many
Munda, Dravidian and other non-Sanskritic terms occur in the Vedic texts
ascribed to 1500–500 BC. They indicate ideas, institutions, products, and
settlements associated with peninsular and non-Vedic India. Similarly, many Pali
and Sanskrit terms, signifying ideas and institutions, developed in the Gangetic
plains, appear in the earliest Tamil texts called the Sangam literature which is
roughly used for the period 300 BC–AD 600. The eastern region inhabited by the
pre-Aryan tribals made its own contribution. The people of this area spoke the
Munda or Kolarian languages. Several terms that signify the use of cotton,
navigation, digging stick, etc., in the Indo-Aryan languages have been traced to
the Munda languages by linguists. Although there are many Munda pockets in
Chhotanagpur plateau, the remnants of Munda culture in the Indo-Aryan culture
are fairly strong. Many Dravidian terms too are to be found in the Indo-Aryan
languages. It is held that changes in the phonetics and vocabulary of the Vedic
language can be explained as much on the basis of the Dravidian influence as
that of the Munda.

India has since ancient times been a land of several religions. Ancient India
saw the birth of Brahmanism or Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, but all these
cultures and religions intermingled and interacted. Thus, though Indians speak
different languages, practise different religions, and observe different social
customs, they follow certain common styles of life. Our country shows a deep
underlying unity despite great diversity.

The ancients strove for unity. The Indian subcontinent was geographically
well defined and its geographical unity was supplemented by cultural
integration. Though there existed many states, languages, cultures, and
communities, gradually people developed territorial identity. The states or
territorial units, called janapadas, were named after different tribes. However,
the country as a whole came to be named Aryavarta after the dominant cultural
community called the Aryans. Aryavarta denoted northern and central India and
extended from the eastern to the western sea coasts. The other name by which
India was better known was Bharatavarsha or the land of the Bharatas. Bharata,
in the sense of tribe or family, figures in the Rig Veda and Mahabharata, but the
name Bharatavarsha occurs in the Mahabharata and post-Gupta Sanskrit texts.
This name was applied to one of the nine divisions of the earth, and in the post-

Gupta period it denoted India. The term Bharati or an inhabitant of India occurs
in post-Gupta texts.

Iranian inscriptions are important for the origin of the term Hindu. The term
Hindu occurs in the inscriptions of fifth–sixth centuries BC. It is derived from the
Sanskrit term Sindhu. Linguistically s becomes h in Iranian. The Iranian
inscriptions first mention Hindu as a district on the Indus. Therefore, in the
earliest stage, the term Hindu means a territorial unit. It neither indicates a
religion nor a community.

Our ancient poets, philosophers, and writers viewed the country as an integral
unit. They spoke of the land stretching from the Himalayas to the sea as the
proper domain of a single, universal monarch. The kings who tried to establish
their authority from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and from the valley of the
Brahmputra in the east to the land beyond the Indus in the west were universally
praised. They were called Chakravartis. This form of political unity was attained
at least twice in ancient times. In the third century BC Ashoka extended his
empire over the whole of India barring the extreme south. His inscriptions are
scattered across a major part of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, and even in
Afghanistan. Again, in the fourth century AD, Samudragupta carried his
victorious arms from the Ganga to the borders of the Tamil land. In the seventh
century, the Chalukya king, Pulakeshin defeated Harshavardhana who was called
the lord of the whole of north India. Despite the lack of political unity, political
formations all over India assumed more or less a single form. The idea that India
constituted one single geographical unit persisted in the minds of the conquerors
and cultural leaders. The unity of India was also recognized by foreigners. They
first came into contact with the people living on the Sindhu or the Indus, and so
they named the entire country after this river. The word Hind or Hindu is derived
from the Sanskrit term Sindhu, and on the same basis, the country became
known as ‘India’ which is very close to the Greek term for it. India came to be
called ‘Hind’ in the Persian and Arabic languages. In post-Kushan times, the
Iranian rulers conquered the Sindh area and named it Hindustan.

We find continuing efforts to establish linguistic and cultural unity in India.
In the third century BC Prakrit served as the lingua franca across the major part
of India. Ashoka’s inscriptions were inscribed in the Prakrit language mainly in
Brahmi script. Later, Sanskrit acquired the same position and served as the state
language in the remotest parts of India. This process was conspicuous during the
Gupta period in the fourth century. Although India witnessed the rise of
numerous small states during the post-Gupta period, the official documents were
written in Sanskrit.

Another notable fact is that the ancient epics, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, were studied with the same zeal and devotion in the land of the
Tamils as in the intellectual circles of Banaras and Taxila. Originally composed
in Sanskrit, various versions of these epics were produced in different local
languages. However, whatever the form in which Indian cultural values and
ideas were expressed, the substance remained largely the same throughout India.

Indian history is especially worthy of our attention because of a peculiar type
of social system which developed in India. In north India, the varna/caste system
developed which eventually spread throughout the country, and influenced even
the Christians and the Muslims. Even converts to Christianity and Islam
continued to follow some of their old caste practices of Hinduism.

The Relevance of the Past to the Present

The study of India’s past assumes special significance in the context of the
problems we currently face. Some people clamour for the restoration of ancient
culture and civilization, and a substantial number are sentimentally swayed by
what they consider to be the past glories of India. This is different from a
concern for the preservation of ancient heritage in art and architecture. What
they really want to bring back is the old pattern of society and culture. This
demands a clear and correct understanding of the past. There is no doubt that
Indians of old made remarkable progress in a variety of fields, but these
advances alone cannot enable us to compete with the achievements of modern
science and technology. We cannot ignore the fact that ancient Indian society
was marked by gross social injustice. The lower orders, particularly the shudras
and untouchables, were encumbered with disabilities which are shocking to the
modern mind. Similarly, law and custom discriminate against women in favour
of men. The restoration of the old way of life will naturally revive and
strengthen all these inequities. The success of the ancients in surmounting the
difficulties presented by nature and human factors can build our hope and
confidence in the future but any attempt to bring back the past will mean a
perpetuation of the social inequity that afflicted India. All this makes it essential
for us to understand what the past means.

We have many survivals of ancient, medieval, and later times persisting in the
present. The old norms, values, social customs, and ritualistic practices are so
deeply ingrained in the minds of the people that they cannot easily themselves
get rid of them. Unfortunately, these survivals inhibit the development of the

individual and the country, and were deliberately fostered in colonial times. India
cannot develop rapidly unless such vestiges of the past are eradicated from its
society. The caste system and sectarianism hinder the democratic integration and
development of India. Caste barriers and prejudices do not allow even educated
individuals to appreciate the dignity of manual labour and hamper our
unification for a common cause. Though women have been enfranchised, their
age-old social subordination prevents them from playing their due role in
society, and this is true too of the lower orders of society. Studying the ancient
past helps us to deeply examine the roots of these prejudices and discover the
causes that sustain the caste system, subordinate women, and promote narrow
religious sectarianism. The study of ancient Indian history is, therefore, relevant
not only to those who want to understand the true nature of the past but also to
those who seek to understand the nature of the obstacles that hamper India’s
progress as a nation.

Chronology Dravidian and non-Sanskritic terms found in Vedic
texts.
1500–500 BC Sangam literature.
Prakrit as the lingua franca.
300 BC–AD 600 Sanskrit as the state language.
3 C BC
AD 4 C onwards

2

Modern Historians of Ancient India

Colonialist Views and their Contribution

Although educated Indians retained their traditional history in the form of
handwritten epics, Puranas, and semi-biographical works, modern research in the
history of ancient India began only in the second half of the eighteenth century
to serve the needs of the British colonial administration. When Bengal and Bihar
fell under the rule of the East India Company in 1765, they found it difficult to
administer the Hindu law of inheritance. Therefore, in 1776, the Manu Smriti,
(the law-book of Manu), which was considered authoritative, was translated into
English as A Code of Gentoo Laws. Pandits were associated with British judges
to administer Hindu civil law and maulvis to administer that of Muslims. The
initial efforts to understand ancient laws and customs, which continued largely
until the eighteenth century, culminated in the establishment in Calcutta in 1784
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. It was set up by a civil servant of the East India
Company, Sir William Jones (1746–94). He was the first to suggest that Sanskrit,
Latin, and Greek belonged to the same family of languages. He also translated
the play known as the Abhijnanashakuntalam into English in 1789; the
Bhagvadgita, the most popular Hindu religious text was translated into English
by Wilkins in 1785. The Bombay Asiatic Society was set up in 1804, and the
Asiatic Society of Great Britain was set up in London in 1823. William Jones
emphasized that originally the European languages were very similar to Sanskrit
and the Iranian language. This enthused European countries such as Germany,
France, and Russia, to foster Indological studies. During the first half of the
nineteenth century, chairs in Sanskrit were established in the UK and several
other European countries.

The greatest impetus to Indological studies was given by the Germanborn
scholar F. Max Mueller (1823–1902), who was largely based in England. The
Revolt of 1857 caused Britain to realize that it badly needed a deeper knowledge
of the manners and social systems of an alien people over whom it ruled.
Similarly, the Christian missionaries sought to uncover the vulnerabilities in the
Hindu religion to win converts and strengthen the British empire. To meet these
needs, ancient scriptures were translated on a massive scale under the editorship
of Max Mueller. Altogether fifty volumes, some in several parts, were published
under the Sacred Books of the East series. Although a few Chinese and Iranian
texts were included, ancient Indian texts were predominant.

In the introductions to these volumes and the books based on them, Max
Mueller and other Western scholars made certain generalizations about the
nature of ancient Indian history and society. They stated that the ancient Indians
lacked a sense of history, especially of the element of time and chronology. They
added that Indians were accustomed to despotic rule, and also natives were so
engrossed in the problems of spiritualism or of the next world that they felt no
concern about the problems of this world. The Western scholars stressed that
Indians had experienced neither a sense of nationhood nor any form of self-
government.

Many of these generalizations were made in the Early History of India by
Vincent Arthur Smith (1843–1920), who wrote in 1904 the first systematic
history of ancient India. His book, which was based on an in-depth study of the
available sources gave primacy to political history. It served as a textbook for
nearly fifty years and is still used by scholars. Smith’s approach to history was
pro-imperialist. As a loyal member of the Indian Civil Service, he emphasized
the role of foreigners in ancient India.

Alexander’s invasion accounted for almost one-third of his book. India was
presented as a land of despotism which had not experienced political unity until
the establishment of British rule. He observes: ‘Autocracy is substantially the
only form of government with which the historian of India is concerned’. In
sum, British interpretations of Indian history served to denigrate the Indian
character and achievements, and justify colonial rule. A few of these
observations appeared to have some validity. Thus, in comparison to the
Chinese, Indians did not show any strong sense of chronology although in the
earlier stage, important events were dated with reference to the death of Gautama
Buddha. However, generalizations made by colonialist historians were by and
large either false or grossly exaggerated, but served as good propaganda material
for the perpetuation of the despotic British rule. Their emphasis on the Indian

tradition of one-man rule could justify the system which vested all powers in the
hands of the viceroy. Similarly, if Indians were obsessed with the problems of
the next world, the British colonial masters had no option but to look after their
life in this world. Without any experience of self-rule in the past, how could the
natives manage their affairs in the present? At the heart of all such
generalizations lay the need to demonstrate that Indians were incapable of
governing themselves.

Nationalist Approach and its Contribution

All this naturally came as a great challenge to Indian scholars, particularly to
those who had received Western education. They were upset by the colonialist
distortions of their past history and at the same time distressed by the contrast
between the decaying feudal society of India and the progressive capitalist
society of Britain. A band of scholars took upon themselves not only the mission
to reform Indian society, but also to reconstruct ancient Indian history in such a
way as to make a case for social reforms and, more importantly, for self-
government. In doing so, most historians were guided by the nationalist ideas of
Hindu revivalism, but there was no dearth of scholars who adopted a rationalist
and objective approach. To the second category belongs Rajendra Lal Mitra
(1822–91), who published some Vedic texts and wrote a book entitled Indo-
Aryans. A great lover of ancient heritage, he took a rational view of ancient
society and produced a forceful tract to show that in ancient times people ate
beef. Others sought to prove that in spite of its peculiarities, the caste system was
not basically different from the class system based on division of labour found in
Europe’s pre-industrial and ancient societies.

In Maharashtra, Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837–1925) and
Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade (1869–1926) emerged as two great dedicated
scholars who pieced together varied sources to reconstruct the social and
political history of India. R.G. Bhandarkar reconstructed the political history of
the Satavahanas of the Deccan and the history of Vaishnavism and other sects. A
great social reformer, through his researches he advocated widow remarriage and
castigated the evils of the caste system and child marriage. With his
unadulterated passion for research, V.K. Rajwade journeyed from village to
village in Maharashtra in search of Sanskrit manuscripts and sources of Maratha
history; the sources were eventually published in twenty-two volumes. He did
not write much, but the history of the institution of marriage that he wrote in
Marathi in 1926 will continue to be a classic because of its solid base in Vedic

and other texts, and also because of the author’s insight into the stages in the
evolution of marriage in India. Pandurang Vaman Kane (1880–1972), a great
Sanskritist wedded to social reform, continued the earlier tradition of
scholarship. His monumental work entitled the History of the Dharmasastra,
published in five volumes in the twentieth century, is an encyclopaedia of
ancient social laws and customs. That enables us to study the social processes in
ancient India.

The Indian scholars diligently studied polity and political history to
demonstrate that India did have a political history and that the Indians possessed
expertise in administration. Here due credit should be given to Devdatta
Ramakrishna Bhandarkar (1875–1950), an epigraphist, who published books on
Ashoka and on ancient Indian political institutions. More valuable work was
done by Hemachandra Raychaudhuri (1892–1957), who reconstructed the
history of ancient India from the time of the Bharata (Mahabharata) war, that is,
tenth century BC to the end of the Gupta empire. As a teacher of European
history, he adopted some of the methods and comparative insights in writing this
book. Although he did not discuss the problem of periodization, his history of
ancient India stopped with the sixth century AD. Though he recognized the
contribution of V.A. Smith to the reconstruction of early Indian history, yet
Raychaudhuri criticized the British scholar at many points. His writings are
marked by impeccable scholarship but show a streak of militant Brahmanism
when he criticizes Ashoka’s policy of peace. A stronger element of Hindu
revivalism appears in the writings of R.C. Majumdar (1888–1980), who was a
prolific writer and the general editor of the multi-volume publication History
and Culture of the Indian People.

Most writers on early Indian history did not give adequate attention to south
India. Even K.A. Nilakanta Sastri (1892–1975), the great historian from south
India, followed the same approach in his A History of Ancient India, but this was
more than rectified in his A History of South India. His style is terse but his
writing lucid. In the presentation of facts he is as dependable as Raychaudhuri.
However, his general observations on the nature of polity and society in south
India are questioned by several scholars. Nilakanta Sastri emphasized the
cultural supremacy of the brahmanas and also highlighted the harmony that
prevailed in early Indian society. Under his leadership several research
monographs were produced on the dynastic history of south India.

Until 1960, political history attracted the largest number of Indian scholars,
who also glorified the histories of their respective regions on dynastic lines.
Those who wrote history at a pan-India level were inspired by the ideas of

nationalism. In contrast to the book of V.A. Smith, who devoted almost a third of
the total space to Alexander’s invasion, Indian scholars gave this subject much
less importance. On the other hand, they stressed the importance of the dialogue
of Porus with Alexander and Chandragupta Maurya’s liberation of north-western
India from Seleucus. Some scholars, such as K.P. Jayaswal (1881–1937) and
A.S. Altekar (1898–1959), overplayed the role of the indigenous ruling dynasties
in liberating India from the rule of the Shakas and Kushans, little realizing that
Central Asians and others became an intrinsic part of India’s life and did not
exploit Indian resources for their original homeland.

However, the greatest merit of K.P. Jayaswal lay in exploding the myth of
Indian despotism. As early as 1910–12, he wrote several articles to show that
republics existed in ancient times and enjoyed a measure of self-government. His
findings finally appeared in Hindu Polity in 1924. Although Jayaswal is charged
with projecting modern nationalist ideas into ancient institutions, and the nature
of the republican government presented by him is attacked by many writers
including U.N. Ghoshal (1886–1969), his basic thesis regarding the practice of
the republican experiment is widely accepted, and his pioneer work Hindu
Polity, now in its sixth edition, is considered a classic.

Move Towards Non-Political History

British historian, A.L. Basham (1914–86), a Sanskritist by training, questioned
the wisdom of looking at ancient India from the modern point of view. His
earlier writings show his deep interest in the materialist philosophy of some
heterodox sects. Later he believed that the past should be read out of curiosity
and pleasure. His book, The Wonder That Was India (1951), is a sympathetic
survey of the various facets of ancient Indian culture and civilization free from
the prejudices that plague the writings of V.A. Smith and many other British
writers.

Basham’s book marks a great shift from political to non-political history. The
same shift is evident in D.D. Kosambi’s (1907–66) book, An Introduction to the
Study of Indian History (1957), later popularized in The Civilisation of Ancient
India in Historical Outline (1965). Kosambi blazed a new trail in Indian history.
His treatment follows a materialist interpretation of history, which is derived
from the writings of Karl Marx. He presents the history of ancient Indian society,
economy, and culture as an integral part of the development of the forces and
relations of production. His was the first survey volume to show the stages of

social and economic development in terms of tribal and class processes. He was
criticized by many scholars, including Basham, but his book continues to be
widely read.

Over the past forty years there has been a sea change in the methods and
orientation of those who work on ancient India. They lay greater stress on social,
economic, and cultural processes, and try to relate them to political
developments. They take account of the stratification of the texts and compare
their conventional nature with archaeological and anthropological evidence. All
this bodes well for the future of historical studies. Western writers no longer
insist that all cultural elements came to India from outside. Some of them,
however, hold that religious ideas, rituals, caste, kinship, and tradition are the
central forces in Indian history. They also underscore various divisive features
which made for stagnation, and are more concerned about the problem of
stability and continuity. They seem to be fascinated by old, exotic elements and
want to preserve them forever. Such an approach implies that Indian society has
not changed and cannot be changed; that stagnation is an integral part of the
Indian character. Thus, the chauvinists and sophisticated colonialists use the
study of India’s past to prevent its progress. A few Indian writers magnify the
role of religion, and believe that everything good and great originated in their
country.

Communal Approach

Since 1980 some Indian writers and their Western counterparts have adopted an
aggressive and irrational approach to the study of ancient India. They identify it
with Hinduism. Under British rule, colonialist historians deliberately denigrated
India’s achievements and attributed important elements of Indian culture to
external influence. Indian historians underlined India’s contribution to world
culture. Hence, in the interpretation of history, there was a continuing struggle
between colonialism and nationalism. Now the situation has undergone a
change. The struggle now is between communalism and irrationalism, on the one
hand, and rationalism and professionalism, on the other. Though most writers are
rational and professional, some have become communal and irrational. The latter
overplay myths and legends, arguing for the existence of Rama’s Ayodhya
without historical evidence. They censure all critical studies of the brahmanical
social structure and even support the caste system by ignoring the social inequity
stressed by Manu.

Those who once attributed the Painted Grey Ware to the Vedic people and
looked for it outside India now declare the Indo-Aryans to be indigenous
Indians. They argue that the Muslims and Christians who came from outside are
foreigners. Such generalizations need to be dispassionately examined on the
basis of a rational reading of the sources. In the context of religion, neither
Hindu nor Hindu dharma is known to any ancient Sanskrit text nor to any other
ancient source. The communal writers go on harping on Hindu and Hindutva.
Under the circumstances, historians wedded to objective and scientific criteria
have to be alert and adhere to reason and long established historical standards.

Chronology
Modern research in the history of ancient India.
(AD)
Second half of the Bihar and Bengal came under the rule of the East India
eighteenth century Company.
1765 Manusmriti tr. as Code of Gentoo Laws.
Asiatic Society of Bengal founded in Calcutta.
1776 Bhagvadgita tr. into English.
1784 Bombay Asiatic Society founded.
1785 Asiatic Society of Great Britain set up in London.
1804 Chairs in Sanskrit established in England and several
1823 other European countries.
First half of the 19 C Early History of India by V.A. Smith.
Hindu Polity by K.P. Jayaswal.
1904 The History of the Institution of Marriage (in Marathi)
1924 by V.K. Rajwade.
1926 The Wonder That Was India by A.L. Basham.
An Introduction to the Study of Indian History by D.D.
1951 Kosambi.
1957 The Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline
by D.D. Kosambi.
1965 R.G. Bhandarkar.
V.K. Rajawade.
1837–1925
1869–1926

1875–1950 D.R. Bhandarkar.
1880–1972 P.V. Kane.
1881–1937 K.P. Jayaswal.
1886–1969 U.N. Ghoshal.
1888–1980 R.C. Majumdar.
1892–1957 H.C. Raychaudhuri.
1892–1975 K.A. Nilakanta Sastri.
1898–1959 A.S. Altekar.
1907–66 D.D. Kosambi.
1914–86 A.L. Basham.

3

Nature of Sources and
Historical Construction

Material Remains

The methods of archaeology help us to recover the material remains of the past,
relating to ancient, medieval, and modern periods of our history. In India and
many other countries, archaeology is used to study prehistory and ancient
history. Prehistory is concerned with the period for which there are no written
sources, and history is basically based on written material. Prehistoric sites differ
from historical sites in several respects. Generally they are not in the form of
prominent habitation remains, but principally of fossils of humans, plants, and
animals. They are found on the hill slopes of plateaus and mountains, and on the
banks of nearby rivers with terraces, and comprise sundry fauna and flora. More
importantly, numerous stone tools from the Stone Age have been found at these
sites. The remains of tools, plants, animals, and humans from the pre-ice age
indicate the climatic conditions that prevailed at the time. Although writing was
known in India by the middle of the third millennium BC in the Indus culture, it
has not so far been deciphered. Thus, though the Harappans knew how to write,
their culture is placed in the proto-historic phase. The same is the case with the
Chalcolithic or copper–Stone Age cultures which had no writing. Decipherable
writing was known in India only in the third century BC with the Ashokan
inscriptions providing solid evidence for historical reconstruction from that time.
However, despite the critical use of Vedic and post-Vedic literary sources for
history in pre-Ashokan times, archaeology remains a very important source for
historians.

The ancient Indians left innumerable material remains. The stone temples in

south India and the brick monasteries in eastern India still stand to remind us of
the great building activities of the past. However, the major part of these remains
lies buried in mounds scattered all over India. (A mound is an elevated portion of
land covering the remains of old habitations.) It may be of different types:
single-culture, major-culture, and multi-culture. Single-culture mounds represent
only one culture throughout. Some mounds represent only the Painted Grey
Ware (PGW) culture, others Satavahana culture, and yet others that of the
Kushans. In major-culture mounds, one culture is dominant and the others are of
secondary importance. Multi-culture mounds represent several important
cultures in succession which occasionally overlap with one another. As is the
case with the Ramayana and Mahabharata, an excavated mound can be used to
understand successive layers of the material and other aspects of a culture.

A mound can be excavated vertically or horizontally. Vertical excavation
means lengthwise digging to uncover the period-wise sequence of cultures; it is
generally confined to a part of the site. Horizontal excavation entails digging the
mound as a whole or a major part of it. The method may enable the excavator to
obtain a complete idea of the site culture in a particular period.

As most sites have been dug vertically, they provide a good chronological
sequence of material culture. Horizontal diggings, being very expensive, are
very few in number, with the result that the excavations do not give us a full or
even adequate picture of material life in many phases of ancient Indian history.

Even in those mounds which have been excavated, the ancient remains have
been preserved in varying proportions. In the dry arid climate of western UP,
Rajasthan, and north-western India, antiquities are found in a better state of
preservation, but in the moist and humid climate of the mid-Gangetic plains and
in the deltaic regions even iron implements suffered corrosion and mud
structures become difficult to detect. Only the burnt brick structures or stone
structures of the Gangetic plains are well preserved.

Excavations have brought to light the villages that people established around
6000 BC in Baluchistan. They also tell us about the material culture which was
developed in the Gangetic plains in the second millennium BC. They show the
layout of the settlements in which people lived, the types of pottery they used,
the form of house in which they dwelt, the kind of cereals they ate, and the type
of tools and implements they used. Some people in south India buried in graves,
along with the dead, their tools, weapons, pottery, and other belongings, and
these were encircled by large pieces of stone. These structures are called
megaliths, although some megaliths do not fall in this category. By digging them
we learn of the life people lived in the Deccan from the Iron Age onwards. The

science that enables us to systematically dig the successive layers of old mounds,
and to form an idea of the material life of the people is called archaeology.

Their dates are fixed by various methods. Of them, radiocarbon dating is the
most important. Radiocarbon or Carbon 14 (C14) is a radioactive carbon
(isotope) which is present in all living objects. It decays, like all radioactive
substances, at a uniform rate. When an object is living, the process of decay of
C14 is neutralized by absorption of C14 through air and food. However, when an
object ceases to be alive, its C14 content continues to decay at a uniform rate but
ceases to absorb C14 from air and food. By measuring the loss of C14 content in
an ancient object, its age can be determined. This is because, as stated earlier, the
decay of C14 takes place at a uniform rate. It is known that the half-life of C14 is
5568 years. The halflife of a radioactive material is defined as the period during
which half the radioactive content in an object disappears. Thus, the C14 content
in an object that ceased to live 5568 years ago would be half of what it was when
it was living, and in an object which ceased to live 11,136 years ago, its C14
content would be one-fourth of that it had been when it was living. But no
antiquity older than 70,000 years can be dated by this method.

The history of climate and vegetation is known through an examination of
plant residues, and especially through pollen analysis. On this basis it is
suggested that agriculture was practised in Rajasthan and Kashmir around 7000–
6000 BC. The nature and components of metal artefacts are analysed
scientifically, and consequently the mines from which the metals were obtained
are located and the stages in the development of metal technology identified. An
examination of animal bones shows whether the animals were domesticated, and
also indicates the uses to which they were put.

I may add that archaeology provides a kind of soil archive which contains
various material remains. However, for a total study of prehistory extending
roughly up to 3000 BC or so, it is necessary to get an idea of the history of the
soil, rocks, etc. This is provided by geological studies. Similarly, the world of
plants and animals keeps on changing though at a slow pace. Their history is
provided by biological studies. Human history cannot be understood without an
idea of the continuing interaction between soils, plants, and animals, on the one
hand, and humans, on the other. Geological and biological advances enable us to
understand not only prehistory but also history. Taken together with
archaeological remains, geological and biological studies act as important
sources for the study of over 98 per cent of the total time scale of history starting
with the origin of the earth.

Coins

Although a large number of coins and inscriptions have been found on the
surface, many of them have been unearthed by digging. The study of coins is
called numismatics. Ancient Indian currency was not issued in the form of paper,
as is the case nowadays, but as metal coins. Ancient coins were made of metal—
copper, silver, gold, and lead. Coin moulds made of burnt clay have been
discovered in large numbers. Most of them relate to the Kushan period, that is,
the first three Christian centuries. The use of such moulds in the post-Gupta
period virtually disappeared.

As there was nothing like the modern banking system in ancient times,
people stored money in earthenware and also in brass vessels, and maintained
them as precious hoards on which they could fall back in time of need. Many of
these hoards, containing not only Indian coins but also those minted abroad, such
as in the Roman empire, have been discovered in different parts of India. They
are preserved mostly in museums in Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Delhi, Jaipur,
Mumbai, and Chennai. There are many Indian coins in the museums of Nepal,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. As Britain ruled over India for a long
time, British officials succeeded in transferring many of the Indian coins to
private and public collections in Britain. Coins of the major dynasties have been
catalogued and published. We have catalogues of the coins in the Indian
Museum at Kolkata, of Indian coins in the British Museum in London, and so
on. None the less, there are a large number of coins that have yet to be
catalogued and published.

Our earliest coins contain a few symbols, but the later coins depict the figures
of kings, and divinities, and also mention their names and dates. The areas where
they are found indicate the region of their circulation. This has enabled us to
reconstruct the history of several ruling dynasties, especially of the Indo-Greeks
who came to India from north Afghanistan and ruled here in the second and first
centuries BC.

As coins were used for various purposes such as donations, a mode of
payment, and a medium of exchange, they throw considerable light on economic
history. Some coins were issued by guilds of merchants and goldsmiths with the
permission of the rulers. This shows that crafts and commerce had become
important. Coins helped transactions on a large scale and contributed to trade.
The largest number of Indian coins date to the post-Maurya period. These were
made of lead, potin, copper, bronze, silver, and gold. The Guptas issued the
largest number of gold coins. All this indicates that trade and commerce

flourished, especially in post-Maurya and a good part of the Gupta period.
However, only a few coins belonging to the post-Gupta period have been found,
which indicates a decline of trade and commerce in that period.

Coins also portray kings and gods, and contain religious symbols and
legends, all of which throw light on the art and religion of the time.

Cowries were also used as coins, though their purchasing power was low.
They appear in substantial numbers in post-Gupta times, but may have been used
earlier.

Inscriptions

Far more important than coins are inscriptions. Their study is called epigraphy,
and the study of the old writing used in inscriptions and other old records is
called palaeography. Inscriptions were carved on seals, stone pillars, rocks,
copperplates, temple walls, wooden tablets, and bricks or images.

In India as a whole, the earliest inscriptions were recorded on stone.
However, in the early centuries of the Christian era, copperplate began to be
used for this purpose. Even then the practice of engraving inscriptions on stone
continued on a large scale in south India. We have also in that region a large
number of inscriptions recorded on the walls of temples to serve as permanent
records.

Like coins, inscriptions are preserved in various museums of the country, but
the largest number may be found in the office of the chief epigraphist at Mysore.
The earliest inscriptions were written in Prakrit in the third century BC. Sanskrit
was adopted as an epigraphic medium in the second century AD and its use
became widespread in the fourth and fifth centuries, but even then Prakrit
continued to be used. Inscriptions began to be composed in regional languages in
the ninth and tenth centuries. Most inscriptions bearing on the history of the
Maurya, post-Maurya, and Gupta periods have been published in a series of
collections called Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, but not many inscriptions of
the post-Gupta period figure in such systematic compilations. In the case of
south India, topographical lists of inscriptions have been published. Still, over
50,000 inscriptions, mostly of south India, await publication.

The Harappan inscriptions, which await decipherment, seem to have been
written in a pictographic script in which ideas and objects were expressed in the
form of pictures. Most Ashokan inscriptions were engraved in the Brahmi script,
which was written from left to right, but some were also incised in the

Kharoshthi script which was written from right to left. However, the Brahmi
script prevailed virtually all over India except for the north-western part. Greek
and Aramaic scripts were employed in writing Ashokan inscriptions in Pakistan
and Afghanistan, but Brahmi continues to be the main script till the end of Gupta
times. An epigraphist can decipher most Indian inscriptions up to about the
seventh century if he has mastered Brahmi and its variations, but subsequently
we notice strong regional variations in this script.

Inscriptions found on the seals of Harappa belonging to about 2500 BC are
considered symbolic by some scholars. For Indian history, the earliest
deciphered inscriptions are Iranian. They belong to the sixth–fifth centuries BC
and are found in Iran. They appear in Old-Indo-Iranian and also in Semitic
languages in the cuneiform script. They speak of the Iranian conquest of the
Hindu or Sindhu area. Of course, in India the earliest deciphered are Ashokan
inscriptions. They are generally written in Brahmi script and Prakrit language in
the third century BC. They throw light on Maurya history and Ashoka’s
achievements. In the fourteenth century AD two Ashokan pillar inscriptions were
found by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, one in Meerut and another at a place called Topra
in Haryana. He brought them to Delhi and asked the pandits of his empire to
decipher the inscriptions, but they failed to do so. The same difficulty was faced
by the British when in the last quarter of the eighteenth century they discovered
Ashokan inscriptions. These epigraphs were first deciphered in 1837 by James
Prinsep, a civil servant in the employ of the East India Company in Bengal.

We have various types of inscriptions. Some convey royal orders and
decisions regarding social, religious, and administrative matters to officials and
the people in general. Ashokan inscriptions belong to this category. Others are
votive records of the followers of Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism, Shaivism,
and the like. They appear on pillars, tablets, temples, or images as marks of
devotion. Yet other types eulogize the attributes and achievements of kings and
conquerors, and ignore their defeats or weaknesses. To this category belongs the
Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta. Finally, we have many donative
records which refer especially to gifts of money, cattle, land, etc., mainly for
religious purposes, made not only by kings and princes but also by artisans and
merchants.

Inscriptions recording land grants, made mainly by chiefs and princes, are
very important for the study of the land system and administration in ancient
India. These were mostly engraved on copperplates. They record grants of lands,
revenues, and villages made to monks, priests, temples, monasteries, vassals, and
officials. They were written in all languages, including Prakrit, Sanskrit, Tamil,

and Telugu.

Literary Sources

Although the ancient Indians knew how to write as early as 2500 BC, our most
ancient manuscripts are not older than the AD fourth century and are found in
Central Asia. In India, they were written on birch bark and palm leaves, but in
Central Asia, where the Prakrit language had spread from India, manuscripts
were also written on sheep leather and wooden tablets. These writings are called
inscriptions, but they are as good as manuscripts. When printing was not known,
manuscripts were very highly valued. Although old Sanskrit manuscripts are
found all over India, they mostly relate to south India, Kashmir, and Nepal.
Currently, inscriptions are largely preserved in museums, and manuscripts in
libraries.

Most ancient books contain religious themes. Hindu religious literature
includes the Vedas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranas, and the
like. They throw considerable light on the social and cultural conditions of
ancient times, but it is difficult to use them in the context of time and place. The
Rig Veda may be assigned to c. 1500–1000 BC, though such collections as the
Atharva Veda, Yajur Veda, the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and the Upanishads date
roughly to 1000–500 BC. Almost every Vedic text contains interpolations, which
generally appear at the beginning or the end and seldom in the middle. The Rig
Veda mainly comprises prayers, whereas the later Vedic texts comprise prayers
as well as rituals, magic, and mythological stories. However, the Upanishads
contain philosophical speculations.

In order to understand the Vedic texts it was necessary to study the Vedangas
or the limbs of the Veda. These supplements of the Veda comprised phonetics
(shiksha), ritual (kalpa), grammar (vyakarana), etymology (nirukta), metrics
(chhanda), and astronomy (jyotisha), and much literature grew around each of
these subjects. They were written in the form of precepts in prose. A precept was
called a sutra because of its brevity. The most famous example of this writing is
the grammar of Panini written around 450 BC. While illustrating the rules of
grammar, Panini casts invaluable light on the society, economy, and culture of
his times.

The two epics and the major Puranas seem to have been finally compiled by
c. AD 400. Of the epics, the Mahabharata attributed to Vyasa is older and
possibly reflects the state of affairs from the tenth century BC to AD fourth

century. Originally, it consisted of 8800 verses and was called Jaya or a
collection dealing with victory. These were increased to 24,000 and came to be
known as Bharata because it contains the stories of the descendants of one of the
earliest Vedic tribes called Bharata. The final compilation increased the verses to
100,000 which came to be known as the Mahabharata or the Shatasahasri
Samhita. It contains narrative, descriptive, and didactic material. The main
narrative which relates to the Kaurava–Pandava conflict may relate to the later
Vedic period, the descriptive portion might be of the post-Vedic period, and the
didactic portion generally relates to the post-Maurya and Gupta periods.
Similarly, the Ramayana of Valmiki originally consisted of 6000 verses which
were raised to 12,000, and eventually to 24,000. Although this epic appears to be
more unified than the Mahabharata, it too has its didactic parts which were
subsequently added. The Ramayana composition started in the fifth century BC.
After that, it passed through as many as five stages, and the fifth stage seems to
have been as late as the twelfth century AD. As a whole, the text seems to have
been composed later than the Mahabharata.

In the post-Vedic period we have a large corpus of ritual literature. Grand
public sacrifices to be made by princes and men of substance belonging to the
three higher varnas are set out in the Shrautasutras, which provide for several
ostentatious royal coronation ceremonies. Similarly, domestic rituals connected
with birth, naming, sacred thread investiture, marriage, funerals, etc. are
prescribed in the Grihyasutras. Both the Shrautasutras and the Grihyasutras
relate to c. 600–300 BC. Mention may also be made of the Sulvasutras, which
prescribe various kinds of measurements for the construction of sacrificial altars.
They mark the beginnings of the study of geometry and mathematics.

The religious books of the Jainas and the Buddhists refer to historical persons
and incidents. The earliest Buddhist texts were written in Pali, which was spoken
in Magadha or south Bihar, and was basically a form of Prakrit. They were
finally compiled in the first century BC in Sri Lanka, but the canonical portions
reflect the state of affairs in India in the age of the Buddha. They tell us not only
about the life of the Buddha but also about some of his royal contemporaries
who ruled over Magadha, north Bihar, and eastern UP. The most important and
interesting portion of the non-canonical literature is provided by the stories of
the previous births of Gautama Buddha. It was believed that before he was
actually born as Gautama, the Buddha passed through over 550 births, in many
cases in the form of animals. Each birth story is called a Jataka, which is a folk
tale. The Jatakas throw invaluable light on the social and economic conditions of
the period between the fifth and second century BC. They also make incidental

references to political events in the age of the Buddha.

The Jaina texts were written in Prakrit and were eventually compiled in AD
sixth century in Valabhi in Gujarat. They, however, contain many passages that
help us to reconstruct the political history of eastern UP and Bihar in the age of
Mahavira. The Jaina texts refer repeatedly to trade and traders.

We also have a large body of secular literature. To this class belong the law-
books, called the Dharmasutras and Smritis, which, together with their
commentaries, are called Dharmashastras. The Dharmasutras were compiled in
500–200 BC and the principal Smritis were codified in the first six centuries of
the Christian era. They prescribe the duties to be performed by the different
varnas as well as by kings and their officials. They set out the rules for marriage
together with the laws according to which property is to be held, sold, and
inherited. They also prescribe punishments for persons guilty of theft, assault,
murder, adultery, and the like.

An important law-book is the Arthashastra of Kautilya. The text is divided
into fifteen books, of which Books II and III may be regarded as being of an
earlier date, and seem to have been the work of different hands. This text was put
in its final form in the beginning of the Christian era, but its earliest portions
reflect the state of society and economy in the age of the Mauryas. It provides
rich material for the study of ancient Indian polity and economy.

Of the non-religious texts, the grammatical works are very important for
historical construction. They begin with the Astadhyayi of Panini. Panini lived in
the north-western part of the subcontinent. He is not mentioned in the Pali texts
which principally represent Bihar and UP. Panini is dated to around 450 BC by
V.S. Agrawala, who has written about Panini’s India in both Hindi and English.
In his view, no other text provides as much information about the janapadas or
territorial states of pre-Mauryan times as Panini’s does. Patanjali’s commentary
on Panini, dated 150 BC, supplies valuable information about post-Maurya times.

We also have the works of Bhasa, Sudraka, Kalidasa, and Banabhatta. Apart
from their literary value, they mirror the conditions of the times to which the
writers belonged. The works of Kalidasa comprise kavyas and dramas, the most
famous of which is Abhijnanashakuntalam. Besides being great creative
compositions, they provide us with glimpses of the social and cultural life of the
Guptas.

In addition to Sanskrit sources, we have some of the earliest Tamil texts in
the corpus of Sangam literature. This literature was produced over a period of
three to four centuries by poets who assembled in colleges patronized by chiefs
and kings. Such colleges were called Sangam, and the literature produced in

these assemblies was known as Sangam literature. The compilation of the corpus
is attributed to the first four Christian centuries, although they were really
completed by the sixth century.

The Sangam literature comprises about 30,000 lines of poetry arranged in
eight anthologies called Ettuttokai. The poems are collected in groups of
hundreds such as Purananuru (The Four Hundred of the Exterior). There are two
main goups Patinenkil Kannakku (The Eighteen Lower Collections) and
Pattuppattu (The Ten Songs). The former is generally assumed to be older than
the latter, and hence is considered to be of great historical importance. The
Sangam texts have several layers, but at present these cannot be established on
the basis of style and content, but, as shown later, they can be detected on the
basis of stages in social evolution.

The Sangam texts are different from the Vedic texts, particularly the Rig
Veda. They do not constitute religious literature. The short and long poems were
composed by numerous poets in praise of various heroes and heroines and are
thus secular in nature. They are not primitive songs, but literature of high quality.
Many poems mention a warrior or a chief or a king by name and describe in
detail his military exploits. The gifts made by him to bards and warriors are
celebrated. These poems may have been recited in the courts. They are compared
with the heroic poetry of the Homeric age, for they represent a heroic age of
warriors and battles. It is difficult to use these texts for historical purposes.
Perhaps the proper names, titles, dynasties, territories, wars, and the like
mentioned in the poems are partly real. Some of the Chera kings mentioned in
the Sangam texts also appear as donors in inscriptions of the first and second
centuries.

The Sangam texts refer to many settlements, including Kaveripattanam
whose flourishing existence has now been archaeologically corroborated. They
also speak of the Yavanas coming in their own vessels, purchasing pepper with
gold, and supplying wine and women slaves to the natives. This trade is known
not only from Latin and Greek writings but also from the archaeological record.
The Sangam literature is a major source of our information for the social,
economic, and political life of the people living in deltaic Tamil Nadu in the
early Christian centuries. What it says about trade and commerce is confirmed
by foreign accounts and archaeological finds.

Foreign Accounts

Indigenous literature can be supplemented by foreign accounts. To India came
Greek, Roman, and Chinese visitors, either as travellers or religious converts,
and they left behind accounts of the things that they saw. It is remarkable that
Alexander’s invasion finds no mention in Indian sources, and it is entirely on the
basis of the Greek sources that we have to reconstruct the history of his Indian
exploits.

The Greek writers mention Sandrokottas, a contemporary of Alexander the
Great, who invaded India in 326 BC. Prince Sandrokottas is identified with
Chandragupta Maurya, whose date of accession is fixed at 322 BC. This
identification has served as the sheet anchor in ancient Indian chronology. The
Indika of Megasthenes, who came to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, has
been preserved only in fragments quoted by subsequent classical writers. These
fragments, when read together, furnish valuable information not only about the
system of Maurya administration but also about social classes and economic
activities in the Maurya period. The Indika is not free from credulity and
exaggerations, which is true of many other ancient accounts.

Greek and Roman accounts of the first and second centuries mention many
Indian ports and enumerate items of trade between India and the Roman empire.
The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea and Ptolemy’s Geography, both written in
Greek, provide valuable data for the study of ancient geography and commerce.
The date ascribed to the first ranges between AD 80 and 115, whereas the second
is attributed to about AD 150. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, which was
written by an anonymous author, describes the Roman trade in the Red Sea,
Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, which relates to
the first century, was written in Latin, and tells us about trade between India and
Italy.

The last Graeco-Roman scholar who wrote on India was called Kosmos
Indikopleustes. He hailed from Alexandria, a centre of Hellenistic culture in
Egypt. Around 550 he wrote the Christian Topography which mentions
Christians in India and Sri Lanka and also refers to horse trade.

Of the Chinese travellers, mention may be made of Fa-hsien and Hsuan
Tsang. Both of them were Buddhists, and came to this country to visit the
Buddhist shrines and to study Buddhism. The first came in the beginning of the
fifth century and the second in the second quarter of the seventh century. Fa-
hsien describes the social, religious, and economic conditions in India in the age
of the Guptas, and Hsuan Tsang presents a similar account of India in the age of
Harsha.

Village Study

Relics of communal sharing in feasts, festivals, and pujas throw light on the
egalitarian character of ancient tribal society. Loyalty to the clan and caste
persists to this day. Survivals of rituals give us an idea of ancient sects and also
of the institutions of marriage and family. High caste people do not milk the cow
and never take to the plough. Their contempt for manual labour promotes
untouchability. Strong traces of inequality are not confined to castes alone but
also colour the relationship between man and woman. Till the 1930s even the
sati system prevailed in rural parts of Bihar. Thus social inequalities, which
prevail despite universal suffrage, indicate the nature of ancient Indian society.
Rural rituals and caste prejudices illustrate many of the Dharmashastra rules
governing our ancient polity and society.

Natural Sciences

The use of the findings of social sciences started about thirty years ago for the
historical construction of ancient India. Recently the use of natural sciences has
begun. Evidence from chemistry, geology, and biology has become relevant to
the study of ancient India.

Historical Sense

Ancient Indians are charged with a lack of sense of history. It is evident that they
did not write history in the manner it is done today, nor did they write it in the
way the Greeks did. We have a sort of history in the Puranas, which are eighteen
in number (eighteen was a conventional term). Though encyclopaedic in content,
the Puranas provide dynastic history up to the beginning of Gupta rule. They
mention the places where the events took place and sometimes discuss their
causes and effects. Statements about events are made in the future tense,
although they were recorded much after the events had occurred. The authors of
the Puranas were not unaware of the idea of change, which is the essence of
history. The Puranas speak of four ages called krita, treta, dvapara, and kali.
Each succeeding age is depicted as worse than the preceding one, and as one age
slides into the other, moral values and social institutions degenerate. The
importance of time and place, vital elements in history, is indicated. It is said that
dharma becomes adharma and vice versa in accordance with changes in time

and place. Several eras, according to which events were recorded, were started in
ancient India. Vikrama Samvat began in 57–8 BC, Shaka Samvat in AD 78, and
the Gupta era in AD 319. Inscriptions record events in the context of time and
place. During the third century BC Ashokan inscriptions demonstrate
considerable historical sense. Ashoka ruled for thirty-seven years. His
inscriptions record events that happened from the eighth to the twenty-seventh
regnal year. To date, events relating to only nine regnal years figure in the
inscriptions that have been discovered. Future discoveries may throw light on
events relating to the remaining years of his reign. Similarly, in the first century
BC Kharavela of Kalinga records a large number of events in his life year by year
in the Hathigumpha inscription.

Indians display a considerable historical sense in biographical writings, a
good example of which is the composition of the Harshacharita by Banabhatta
in the seventh century. It is a semi-biographical work written in an ornate style
which became the despair of later imitators. It describes the early career of
Harshavardhana. Although highly exaggerated, it gives an excellent idea of court
life under Harsha and the social and religious life in his age. Later, several other
charitas or biographies were written. Sandhyakara Nandi’s Ramacharita (twelfth
century) narrates the story of the conflict between the Kaivarta peasants and the
Pala prince Ramapala, resulting in the latter’s victory. Bilhana’s
Vikramankadevacharita recounts the achievements of his patron, Vikramaditya
VI (1076–1127), the Chalukya king of Kalyan. Even the biographies (charita) of
some merchants of Gujarat were written in AD twelfth–thirteenth centuries.
Similar historical works may have been written in south India, but thus far only
one such account has been discovered. This is called Mushika Vamsha and was
written by Atula in the eleventh century. It is an account of the dynasty of the
Mushikas which ruled in northern Kerala. However, the best example of the
earliest historical writing is provided by the Rajatarangini or The Stream of
Kings written by Kalhana in the twelfth century. It is a string of biographies of
the kings of Kashmir, and can be considered to be the first work to possess
several characteristics of historical writing as it is understood today.

Constructing History

So far numerous sites, prehistoric, proto-historic, and historical, have been
excavated and explored, but the results do not find a place in the mainstream of
ancient Indian history. The stages of social evolution in India cannot be properly
comprehended without taking into account the results of prehistoric and proto-

historic archaeology, not to speak of historical archaeology. Although nearly 200
sites relating to the ancient historical period have been excavated, yet their
relevance to the study of the social, economic, and cultural trends in ancient
times has not been adequately discussed in survey studies. This needs to be done
both in the context of the rural and urban aspects of ancient India. So far the
significance of largely Buddhist and some brahmanical sites has been
highlighted, but religious history needs to be seen in relation to social and
economic developments.

Ancient history has so far been constructed principally on the basis of literary
sources, foreign and indigenous. Coins and inscriptions play some part, but the
texts receive greater weightage. Now new methods must be adopted. Historical
knowledge keeps growing. We have to be more critical about the dates and
contents of the texts. This may be done if we examine the texts in the context of
archaeological evidence. Initially, archaeologists were inspired by written texts,
and several sites mentioned in the brahmanical and Buddhist texts were
excavated. This immensely enriched historical information, though the digging
results did not always confirm the contents of the texts. Though full-length
reports of many excavated sites are yet to be published, it is advisable to
examine the texts in the context of archaeological findings. For the study of the
age of the Rig Veda we have to take into account of the Gandhara grave culture
in which the horse was used and the dead were cremated in the second
millennium BC. We have to establish a co-relation between the later Vedic age,
on the one hand, and the Painted Grey Ware and other types of archaeological
finds, on the other. Similarly, early Pali texts have to be related to the Northern
Black Polished Ware (NBPW) archaeology. Besides, the information derived
from the Sangam texts needs to be co-related with that inferred from inscriptions
and early Megalithic archaeology in peninsular India.

Archaeological evidence should be considered far more important than the
long family trees found in the Puranas. The Puranic tradition could be used to
date Rama of Ayodhya to around 2000 BC, but diggings and extensive
explorations in Ayodhya do not show any settlement around that date. Similarly,
although Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, the earliest
inscriptions and sculptural pieces from Mathura between 200 BC and AD 300 do
not attest to his presence. Given such difficulties, the ideas of an epic age based
on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata must be discarded, although in the past
it formed a chapter in most survey volumes on ancient India. Of course, several
stages of social evolution in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata can be
detected. This is so because the epics do not belong to a single phase of social

evolution; we may recall that they have undergone several editions. Further, on
the basis of literary traditions and epigraphic material, Vardhamana Mahavira
and Gautama Buddha are generally dated to the sixth century BC, but the cities
they visited are archaeologically not older than 400 BC and therefore the
tradition-based dates of these great personalities need to be reconsidered.

On chronological and rational grounds, archaeology, inscriptions, and coins
are more important than texts. However, the grammatical works of Panini and
Patanjali have almost fixed dates, and they are comparatively free from myths
and legends and are therefore as important as coins, inscriptions, and the results
of excavations.

Many inscriptions have to date been dismissed on the ground that they are of
little historical value. ‘Historical value’ is taken to mean information necessary
to reconstruct political history. However, a royal inscription contains
exaggerations. The term hundreds of thousands seems to be a cliché in Ashokan
inscriptions. It is applied to people and animals, and raises doubts about the
number of the people killed in the Kalinga war and those brought to Pataliputra.
There are exaggerations too in the inscriptions of Samudragupta and King
Chandra. Despite these exaggerations, in comparison to Puranic traditions,
inscriptions are certainly more reliable. Thus, though the Puranas are used to
push back the origin of the Satavahanas, the inscriptions place it in the first
century BC. Inscriptions may indicate the regnal period of a king, his conquest,
and its extent, but they also reveal trends in the development of polity, society,
economy, and religion. This study, therefore, does not use inscriptions merely for
political or religious history. Epigraphic land grants are valued not for the family
trees and lists of conquest, but more importantly for the rise of new states and
changes in the social and agrarian structure, particularly in post-Gupta times.
Similarly, coins need to be used not only for the reconstruction of the history of
the Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Satavahanas, and Kushans, but also for the history of
trade and urban life.

In sum, a careful collection of the material derived from texts, coins,
inscriptions, archaeology, etc., is essential for historical reconstruction. We have
seen that this raises the problem of the relative importance of the sources. Thus,
coins, inscriptions, and archaeology are considered more important than
mythologies found in the epics and Puranas. Mythologies may support dominant
norms, validate social mores, and justify the privileges and disabilities of people
organized in castes and other social groups, but the events described in them
cannot be taken to be true. Past practices can also be explained with the help of
some ancient survivals in our own times. Familiarity with village life and the

insights derived from the study of primitive people are valuable assets in the
construction of ancient history. A sound historical reconstruction cannot ignore
developments in other ancient societies. A comparative view may remove the
obsession with the idea of the ‘rare’ or ‘unique’ in ancient India and may bring
out those trends that ancient India shares with the past societies of the other
countries. We may also use the results of human genetic research to learn about
Indian connection with peoples in other parts of the world. A scientific study of
heredity and generationwise inherited traits indicate ethnic mixture, dispersal of
population, and dissemination of culture.

Chronology
Writing enters the Indus culture.
(BC) Rig Veda.
3 M Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda, the Brahmanas, Aranyakas,
1500–1000 and the Upanishads.
1000–500 Shrautasutras and Grihyasutras.
Mahavira and the Buddha as per literature.
600–300 Dharmasutras.
6 C Grammar of Panini.
500–200 Mahavira and the Buddha in the context of
450 archaeology.
5 C Alexander’s invasion.
Accession of Chandragupta Maurya.
326 Decipherable writing in India.
322 Vikrama Samvat.
3 C Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela of Kalinga.
57–8 The earliest Pali Buddhist texts compiled in Sri Lanka.
1 C
1 C The Arthashastra of Kautilya finally compiled.
(AD) Start of Shaka Samvat.
1 C The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.
78 Ptolemy’s Geography.
80–115 Start of the Gupta era.
150
319

400 Mahabharata, Ramayana, and major Puranas finally
compiled.
4 C Earliest Indian manuscript found in Central Asia.
5 C Fa-hsien comes to India.
6 C The Prakrit Jaina texts finally compiled in Valabhi.
7 C Hsuan Tsang’s visit. Harshacharita by Banabhatta.
11 C Mushika Vamsha by Atula.
11–12 C Vikramankadevacharita by Bilhana.
12 C Ramacharita by Sandhyakara Nandi.
Rajatarangini by Kalhana.
1837 Ashokan inscriptions first deciphered by James
Prinsep.

4

Geographical Setting

Emergence of India

The Indian subcontinent emerged as a separate geographical unit some 40
million years ago. Originally peninsular India, together with Antarctica, Africa,
Arabia, and South America, is considered to have been a part of the southern
super-continent called Gondwanaland. Earlier, Gondwanaland, together with the
northern super-continent Laurisia, comprising North America, Greenland,
Europe, and most of Asia north of the Himalayas, formed a single land mass
called Pangaea. Then Gondwanaland and Laurisia became separate units. Due to
tectonic movements different parts began to break away from Gondwanaland,
giving rise to separate geographical units including peninsular India. This
process began around 225 million years ago, and 40 million years ago India
became a separate unit. India moved north to join the Eurasian continent
sometime between 58 and 37 million years ago. In comparison to earlier dates,
India’s Himalayan boundary is very young. The uplift of the Himalayas took
place in four phases. The last and the final uplift took place in the Pleistocene
epoch, that is, in c. 2 million–12000 BC. The Himalayas played an important part
in forming the Indo-Gangetic plains through its rivers which brought down
alluvial deposits in the Pleistocene epoch. The Indian subcontinent is as large in
area as Europe without Russia, with a total area of 4,202,500 sq. km. The
subcontinent is divided into five countries: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan,
and Pakistan. India has nearly 1000,000,000 people. It comprises twenty-eight
states and seven union territories, including the National Capital Territory of
Delhi. Some of its states are larger than many European countries.

The Role of the Monsoon

The Indian subcontinent is a well-defined geographical unit and is largely
situated in the tropical zone. The monsoon has played an important role in
India’s history. The south-west monsoon lasts between June and October and
brings rain in varying degrees to major parts of the country. In ancient times,
irrigation was not an important factor and rains played a crucial role in
agriculture. What is known today as the kharif crop in north India depended
primarily in ancient times on the south-west monsoon. In winter, the western
disturbances bring rains to northern India where wheat, barley, and the like
constitute the main crop. A part of the peninsular India, particularly the coastal
areas of Tamil Nadu, gets its major rainfall from the north-east monsoon from
mid-October to mid-December. Once the direction of the monsoon was
discovered some time around AD first century, traders sailed with the south-west
monsoon from western Asia and the Mediterranean area, and came to India and
Southeast Asia. They returned westward with the arrival of the north-east
monsoon. The discovery of the monsoon enabled India to carry on trade and
establish cultural contacts with western Asia and the Mediterranean area as well
as with Southeast Asia.

The Northern Boundaries

India is bounded by the Himalayas on the north and seas on the other three sides.
The Himalayas protect the country against the cold arctic winds blowing from
Siberia through Central Asia. This keeps the climate of northern India fairly
warm throughout the year. As the cold is not very severe in the plains, people do
not need heavy clothing and can live in the open for longer periods. Secondly,
the Himalayas are sufficiently high to shield India against invasions from the
north. This was specially true in pre-industrial times when communications were
very difficult. However, on the north-west, the Sulaiman mountain ranges, which
are a southward continuation of the Himalayas, could be crossed through the
Khyber, Bolan, and Gomal passes. The Sulaiman ranges are joined southward in
Baluchistan by the Kiarthar ranges which could be crossed through the Bolan
pass. Through these passes, two-way traffic between India and Central Asia has
continued from prehistoric times onwards. Various peoples from Iran,
Afghanistan, and Central Asia came to India as invaders and immigrants, and
vice versa. Even the Hindu Kush, the westward extension of the Himalayan
system, did not form an insuperable barrier between the Indus and the Oxus

systems. The passes facilitated trade and cultural contacts between India, on the
one hand, and Central Asia and West Asia, on the other.

Nestled in the Himalayas are the valleys of Kashmir and Nepal. Surrounded
on all sides by high mountains, the valley of Kashmir developed its own way of
life, but could be reached through several passes. Its winter compelled some of
its people to go to the plains and its summer attracted the shepherds from the
plains. Economic and cultural interaction between the plains and the valley was
continuing. The Pamir plateau did not prevent it from becoming a transmission
centre of Buddhism to the adjacent areas of Central Asia. The valley of Nepal,
smaller in size, is accessible to the people of the Gangetic plains through a
number of passes. Like Kashmir, it too became a centre for the cultivation of
Sanskrit; both these valleys became repositories of the largest number of
Sanskrit manuscripts.

The foothills of the Himalayas lent themselves to easier clearance than the
jungles on the alluvial soil of the plains. It was easy to cross rivers in these areas
because of their narrower width, and hence the earliest routes skirted along the
foothills of the Himalayas from the west to the east and vice versa. It was
therefore natural that the earliest agricultural settlements were founded in the
foothills and uplands, and trade routes followed the terai route.

Rivers

The heart of historical India is formed by its important rivers which are swollen
by the tropical monsoon rains. These consist of the plains of the Indus system,
the Indo-Gangetic divide, the Gangetic basin, and the Brahmaputra basin.
Proceeding from west to east we find the annual rainfall gradually increasing
from 25 cm to over 250 cm. The Indus vegetation based on 25 to 37 cm rainfall
and possibly the western Gangetic vegetation based on 37 to 60 cm rainfall
could be cleared with stone and copper implements and made fit for cultivation,
but this was not possible in the case of the mid-Gangetic vegetation based on 60
to 125 cm rainfall, and certainly not in the case of the lower Gangetic and
Brahmaputra vegetation based on 125 to 250 cm rainfall. The thickly forested
areas, which also had hard soil, could be cleared only with the aid of iron
implements which became available at a much later stage. Therefore, the natural
resources of the less rainy western area were utilized first, and large-scale human
settlements generally spread from west to east.

Once brought under cultivation, the Indus–Gangetic plains produced rich

crops and supported successive cultures. The Indus and the western Gangetic
plains principally produced wheat and barley, while the middle and lower
Gangetic plains largely produced rice, which also became the staple diet in
Gujarat and south of the Vindhyas. The Harappan culture originated and
flourished in the Indus Valley; the Vedic culture originated in the North-West
Frontier Province and the Punjab, and flourished in the western Gangetic basin;
the post-Vedic culture, mainly based on the use of iron, throve in the mid-
Gangetic basin. The lower Gangetic valley and north Bengal really came into
focus in the age of the Guptas; and finally, the Brahmaputra valley covering
Assam gained importance in early medieval times. Powerful rulers fought for the
possession of these plains and valleys, and the Ganga–Yamuna doab in particular
proved to be the most coveted and contested area.

The rivers served as arteries of commerce and communications. In ancient
times it was difficult to build roads, and so men and material were moved by
boat. The river routes, therefore, well-served military and commercial transport.
Evidently the stone pillars built by Ashoka were transported to different parts of
the country by boat. The importance of rivers for communications continued till
the days of the East India Company. Besides, the rivers inundated the
neighbouring areas and made them fertile; they also supplied water to the canals
cut from them. However, they caused heavy floods which periodically inundated
and destroyed towns and villages in the northern plains, and therefore many
ancient buildings were totally washed away and destroyed. Nevertheless,
important towns and capitals, such as Hastinapur, Prayag, Varanasi, and
Pataliputra were situated on the banks of the rivers. In modern times, urban sites
are located at railway and road junctions or in industrial or mining zones, but in
pre-industrial times towns were mostly situated on river banks and junctions.

Above all, it was the rivers that demarcated political and cultural boundaries,
which were also formed by mountains. Thus, in the eastern part of the Indian
peninsula, the area known as Kalinga, covering the coastal belt of Orissa, was
situated between the Mahanadi to the north and the Godavari to the south.
Similarly, Andhra Pradesh largely lay between the Godavari to the north and the
Krishna to the south. The deltaic plains formed by these two rivers at their
mouths shot into prominence by the beginning of the Christian era when they
became studded with towns and ports under the Satavahanas and their
successors. Finally, a major part of Tamil Nadu was situated between the
Krishna to the north and the Kaveri to the south. The Kaveri valley extended in
the south roughly to the Vaigai river, and in the north to the south Pennar river. It
formed a distinct geographical zone and became the seat of the Chola power a

little before the beginning of the Christian era. This area was different from
north Tamil Nadu, which consisted of uplands and came into prominence under
the Pallavas in the fourth–sixth centuries. The eastern part of the peninsula is
bounded by the Coromandel coast. Although the coastline is flanked by the
Eastern Ghats or steps, the ghats are not very high and have several openings
caused by the eastward flow of the rivers into the Bay of Bengal. Thus
communication between the eastern coast, on the one hand, and other parts of
Andhra and Tamil Nadu, on the other, was not difficult in ancient times. The port
cities of Arikamedu (modern name), Mahabalipuram, and Kaveripattanam were
situated on the Coromandel coast.

The western part of the peninsula does not have such distinct regional units.
We can, however, locate Maharashtra between the Tapi (or Damanganga) to the
north and the Bhima to the south. The area covered by Karnataka seems to have
been situated between the Bhima and the upper regions of the Krishna to the
north and the Tungabhadra to the south. For a long time, the Tungabhadra
provided a natural frontier between the warring powers to its north and south.
Just as the Chalukyas of Badami and the Rashtrakutas found it difficult to extend
their sway to the south of the Tungabhadra, so also the Pallavas and Cholas
found it difficult to extend their authority to its north. The coastal area in the
extreme south-west of the peninsula was covered by the modern state of Kerala.
The sea coast along the western part of the peninsula is called the Malabar coast.
Although the coast came to have several ports and small kingdoms,
communications between the coast and the adjoining areas of Maharashtra,
Karnataka, and Kerala were rendered difficult by the Western Ghats with
difficult passes to cross.

In between the Indus and the Gangetic systems to the north and the Vindhya
mountains to the south lies a vast stretch of land which is divided into two units
by the Aravalli mountains. The area west of the Aravallis is covered by the Thar
desert, although a part of Rajasthan also lies in this region. The vast expanse of
the desert made human settlements impossible in ancient times. However, a few
fertile oases scattered in the desert were settled, and from early times it has been
possible to cross the desert on camels. The south-eastern portion of Rajasthan
has been a comparatively fertile area since ancient times, and because of the
existence of the Khetri copper mines in this region, it came to be settled in the
Chalcolithic period.

Rajasthan shades off into the fertile plains of Gujarat, which are irrigated by
the waters of the Narmada, Tapi, Mahi, and Sabarmati. Situated at the end of the
north-western portion of the Deccan plateau, Gujarat includes the less rainy

Kathiawar peninsula. The coastal area of this state is fairly indented, and
therefore suitable for the establishment of several harbours. Therefore, since
ancient times, Gujarat has been famous for its coastal and foreign trade, and its
people have proved to be enterprising traders.

South of the Ganga–Yamuna doab, and bounded by the Chambal river to the
west, the Son river on the east, and the Vindhya mountains and the Narmada
river to the south, lies the state of Madhya Pradesh. Its northern part consists of
fertile plains. At present, MP is the largest state in the country, and can be
broadly divided into two parts, eastern and western. The eastern part, mostly
covered by the Vindhyas, became historically important in Gupta times in the
fourth and fifth centuries. However, western MP includes Malwa, which has
been the scene of historical activities from the sixth century BC onwards. Malwa
served as an important hinterland for the Gujarat ports, and many wars were
fought between the Deccan and the northern powers for the possession of Malwa
and Gujarat. The Shakas and the Satavahanas fought for the possession of this
key area in the first and second centuries, and the Marathas and the Rajputs in
the eighteenth century.

Natural Frontiers and Cultural Contacts

Each of the areas bounded by rivers, in some cases by mountains, and sometimes
with deltas and plateaus, constituted a political and administrative unit in which
different ruling dynasties rose and fell. On account of difficult communications
in a vast country and the defensibility of the natural frontiers, it was not easy for
the ruling class of one region to establish its control over all the other regions.
Gradually every region grew into a distinct cultural unit with its own style of life
and language. However, in northern and western India, most languages were
derived from the same Indo-Aryan stock, and hence had many elements in
common. What is also important is that virtually throughout India Sanskrit came
to be cultivated and understood.

The Vindhya mountains cut right across India from west to east and formed a
boundary between north and south India. The speakers of the Dravidian
languages lived south of the Vindhyas, and of the Indo-Aryan languages north of
them. In between lived tribal peoples in the Vindhya regions where they are still
found. The coastal areas along the Eastern and Western Ghats attracted settlers
and traders, and the south was engaged in flourishing foreign trade. The
Vindhyas do not constitute insurmountable barriers. In ancient times, despite the